Living room conversations and changing the political culture

Joan Blades, founder of MomsRising.org, and guest speaker Jackie Salit, author of Independents Rising, hosted an event in San Francisco on Saturday to discuss a new political culture in America; one focused on understanding different perspectives. Salit opened the discussion with a light-hearted memory of the barriers she faced at a young age. “I don’t remember ever becoming an activist, but grew up in a very political family.” But she did remember bringing a bunch of kids together in her neighborhood to talk about her concern for the fighting and factionalism among them. She also remembered that “no one would play with me after that,” which drew some laughter from the audience of about 100.

Jackie Salit (Left) and Joan Blades (Right)

Salit continued by discussing the need for process-oriented changes to the political system in order to break the partisan divide, the result of a political culture that has embraced the same mentality of school-yard children; one that has created massive institutional barriers to cooperative participation in the process. She argued that the only way to get over the massive hurdles that prevent cooperation requires a fundamental change in our political process.